Essay Atomic Bomb - 3

On August 6th in 1945, the United States dropped the first atomic bomb the world has ever seen on a Japanese war industry city, Hiroshima. Three days later came another bomb upon the city of Nagasaki, also a war industry city. Over 100,000 lives were lost to the catastrophic bombs. The decision to drop the bombs is one of the most controversial choices made by a United States president. Historians have argued on what President Truman actually tried to achieve with the two atomic bombs dropped on Japan. Some say it truly was meant to put an end to the Second World War, however others are challenging that that was not the only intent of the action. Historians are beginning to believe that President Truman really had a desire to intimidate the growing Soviet Union, who was gaining a steady momentum in their communist influence on the world. With the evidence provided, it is proven that the decision to drop the atomic bombs was not to end World War II as Truman claims, but that it was meant to exhibit the power of the United States to the Soviet Union.
The reasons for dropping the bombs usually include saving many American soldiers’ lives from further fighting, ending World War II faster, and keeping the Soviet Union from being a major power after the war. The claimed reasons for dropping the bombs to prevent heavy casualties on the American side and to make Japan surrender are not the true reasons. The real reason is that it was a calculated plan by Truman to drop the bombs in order to intimidate the Soviet Union and to make sure it is clear that the United States is the world’s superpower country. Truman failed to tell the America the truth and instead focused it about saving lives and ending the war.
McGeorge Bundy, co-author of Secretary of War Henry Stimson’s autobiography, justified the decision to drop the bombs in his essay, "Danger and Survival." His 1988 essay also expanded upon his justifications. Bundy was trying to defend the United States and his own role in the decision to drop the bombs. He argued that Truman dropped the atomic bombs on Japan to put an end to the war as soon as possible. He also argued that dropping the bombs saved thousands and thousands of American soldiers’ lives that would have been killed if the United States were to have another attack on Japan, that the bombs were viewed as just a military weapon of war, and that it was an unanimous decision amongst U.S. officials and leaders (Bundy). Truman expressed these same reasons.
The 1946 U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey examined evidence and reached the conclusion that, "Certainly prior to December 31, 1945, and in all probability prior to November 1, 1945, Japan would have surrendered even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped, even if Russia had not entered the war, and even if no invasion had been planned or contemplated" (U.S Strategic…). In June 1945, the United States spied on Japanese cables looking for help from the Soviet Union with their offer of surrender to the United States. American diplomats told Truman in June 1945 that the Japanese were agreeing to surrender on one condition that they be allowed to have their emperor stay. However, President Truman and the United States declined those first Japanese offers and demanded that Japan have an unconditional surrender and agree to give up their emperor.
In the months of June and July in 1945, American planes demonstrated such great power, bombing using saturation and firebombing, destroying almost all of Japan’s largest cities. Over one million people were killed and 20 million were left homeless. It is clear that American planes ruled the Japanese skies, however it is not clear the reason why the United States continued to bomb Japanese cities with bombs in order to make them surrender. It is now known that Hiroshima and Nagasaki were two of a few of Japanese cities saved from the saturation bombing so that it would be determined the effects of the atomic bomb on a major war…

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